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WEST VALLEY CITY — Jeanetta Williams, a longtime civil rights activist and president of the Salt Lake Branch of the NAACP, on Wednesday filed to run for Utah's state House District 26.
Williams, a Democrat, has led the local chapter of the nation's oldest civil rights organization for more than three decades. She said she's choosing now to run "because the people of the west side deserve an advocate on the hill who will put their interests, not a partisan agenda, first."
"I have spent my career dedicated to public service and community leadership, I know how to get results, and I never back down from a fight, no matter how tough," she said. "That's the kind of representative I will be in the Legislature, and I'm excited to earn the support of my community as I start my campaign."
Williams is challenging Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, who was picked by GOP delegates in October to replace Rep. Quinn Kotter, a Republican who stepped down during his first term.
Kotter first won the seat by fewer than 150 votes in 2022, which Williams noted in her announcement, expressing interest in flipping one of the state's most competitive seats back into the Democrats' column.
In addition to her work with the NAACP, Williams has long been an advocate for police reform, hate crime statutes and victims' rights legislation.
